ACA workshop draws large crowd in Selma

More than a hundred people gathered at the Brown Chapel A.M.E. Church Wednesday night to learn about the Affordable Care Act and the enrollment healthcare coverage process.

The office of Congresswoman Terri A. Sewell (D-AL) hosted an ACA Marketplace Education and Enrollment Workshop Wednesday that featured general information on the ACA and the health insurance marketplace.

Representatives of Congresswoman Sewell’s office and Arise Citizens, which is an organization that strives to promote public policies that improve the lives of low-income Alabamians, gave a presentation meant to teach the audience about the benefits of ACA and the options made available to me.

“The congresswoman made it one of her goals to make sure that we provide information and convey accurate information to her constituents about how to enroll and what some of the benefits are about enrolling,” Constituents Services Manger Melinda Williams with Sewell’s Montgomery office, said during the opening portion of the informative session.

Two navigators were present to direct any confused audience members through the healthcare enrollment, which some admitted was a complex and often frustrating process.

Arise Citizens health reform organizer Dollie Hambrick discussed portions of the act that benefit those that are the insured.

“People that have full-time employment can put their children on insurance until they turn 26-years-old,” Hambrick said before adding that the marital status and living situation of that child is not relevant to their eligibility for coverage. “It’s a wonderful for parents as well as children to breath easier, because they have that coverage.”

She went on to explain how nonprofit hospitals are obligated to charge people fairly.

“Hospitals that are nonprofit can not charge you if you don’t have insurance any more than they charge the other person that has insurance,” Hambrick said. “Nonprofit now have to have a clear policy and be upfront about the cost if you don’t have insurance and what your pay plan will be.”

The law requires the uninsured to sign-up for health coverage by the March 31. For coverage to start Jan.1, people must pay their premium Dec. 23.

“We have been working hard as a nation to try to get healthcare for as long as we have been a nation,” Hambrick said. “We have a law that is in place that is certainly not perfect, no law is perfect.”